The present invention generally relates to linear guide devices with a preloaded-adjustment devices.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a linear guide device which includes a guide rail system with at least one guide rail, and a guide carriage which is guided on the guide rail system in the guidance direction, with a base unit and legs which partially enclose the guide rail system; the guide carriage includes at least one preload-adjustment device, via which a preload on the legs of guide carriage against the guide rail system can be adjusted.
A linear guide device of this type is made known, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,210, which is the closest related art. With the known linear guide device, the preload of the legs of the guide carriage against the guide rail system can be adjusted by the fact that, by displacing a wedge or rotating a shaft which is shaped accordingly, a leg section of the guide carriage is deformed elastically in the direction toward the guide rail system. The disadvantage of this is that the preload adjustment is not sensitive enough. In particular, when a screw is used to displace the wedge element, the screw-down torque of the screw provides little indication of the current preload.